27 Ways To Improve Your Meeting - Sanaghan Group

1 27 ways To Improve your Meeting 1. Check people's time commitments before you begin your Meeting This is an important thing to do, especially when you have a diverse Group of people throughout the organization attending a Meeting or you have a combination of insiders and outsiders attending your Meeting ( customers, community members, vendors). Doing this helps with two things: A. It alerts you to who will be leaving before the official time of the Meeting . You might have to adjust your agenda to make sure someone who has to leave early is utilized appropriately.

2 For example: there might be a specific agenda item that an early leaver is an expert about and you want to use their expertise. Just let participants know what you are thinking. Mary has to leave at 1:30 and I would like to suggest we move the agenda item on the technology infrastructure up so we can get her advice before she has to leave. Is that okay with folks? Get approval and keep on moving. B. Whenever a person leaves a Meeting , it changes the Group dynamics. It can either add or detract the energy and focus of the Meeting . For example: If a senior level person leaves early, participants might psychologically relax when they leave or feel like the Meeting is less important after the leader leaves.

3 You need to be prepared for both scenarios and remind participants that they still have important work to do and that you expect full participation 2. Skip Monday morning meetings they are usually not a good idea About 80% of the organizations we have worked with have Monday morning meetings to kick off the week. This is especially true at the senior level. This idea looks good on paper but is often detrimental in practice. We suggest you have a Monday afternoon kick off Meeting or wait until Tuesday morning. Some reasons why: A. While attending a Monday morning Meeting , people psychologically are thinking about their staff, wonder what's going on in their department/division, still thinking about the weekend, worry about the problems that await them.

4 Let people have Monday morning to check in with their people, problem solve and get things moving in their units. This way when they come to the Monday afternoon Meeting , they will be psychologically connected to what's going on. B. It gives people extra time to prepare for the kick off Meeting . They can review the necessary information before they come to the Meeting and do some thinking so they are prepared for the Meeting . C. There will be less stress about the Meeting because the sense of urgency that accompanies the usual Monday morning Meeting will be neutralized.

5 PATRICK Sanaghan 168 East State Street, Doylestown PA 18901 3. Ground rules are essential For any regular Meeting it is important to have some working agreements or ground rules to which participants are committed. Make sure there is agreement on the ground rules before beginning the Meeting . Some suggestions: Our favorite is one person speaks at a time . This helps eliminate all the aggravating sidebars that take place in most meetings and take the energy and focus away from the discussion. If you see more than one person talking during a Meeting , gently remind people of the ground rule.

6 Don't single anyone out ( Pat, can you stop talking while Barbara is explaining the new budget?). Just state the ground rule as a reminder to everyone. Do it as soon as it occurs so you nip it in the bud and, especially if someone senior is the guilty party. If participants see the facilitator let the senior leader violate the ground rule, you don't have a ground rule any more. Another effective ground rule is start and end on time . This helps communicate that everyone's time is valuable and gives the Meeting facilitator/leader permission to begin the Meeting on time, even if someone is missing.

7 It also holds the leader/facilitator accountable for ending on time, so be careful what you wish for! Use whatever ground rules you believe will help you have an effective Meeting . Pay attention to both task ( , start and end on time, distribute agenda before Meeting ) and the process ( , practice active listening, one person talks at a time) elements of meetings. The key thing to remember is that Meeting participants need to agree with the ground rules before you begin the Meeting . It is hard to impose ground rules after the Meeting begins (why don't we now agree to raise our hands and be acknowledged by the facilitator) halfway into the Meeting .

8 4. Poker chips and paper clips This is a technique we have used several times and is very effective with highly verbal, dominating or contentious Meeting participants. Before the Meeting , distribute 5-10 poker chips or paper clips to everyone. Communicate the following to participants, Every time you speak, please put one of your poker chips in the center of the table. For every 3 minutes you speak, it will cost you another poker chip. (This prevents one person from monopolizing the conversation). After all your poker chips are spent, you can no longer verbally participate on the Meeting , just listen to others and observe.

9 Obviously, this technique will not work if people don't agree with it. It will take the senior leader to sanction the technique. They must be willing to give legitimacy to trying this powerful technique. When utilizing this technique, several things will happen: A. The overly verbal participants will spend their poker chips quickly B. Sometimes the verbals will actually think before they speak because their participation costs them something and;. PATRICK Sanaghan 168 East State Street, Doylestown PA 18901 C. The quieter participants will have most of the chips and begin participating more.

10 You want this to happen. 5. Use a timer This is a technique that can work very well but must be used judiciously. The goal should be to make people aware of time, not create a false sense of urgency during the Meeting . For example, let's say there is an allotted 30 minutes for discussion on a specific topic. Set the timer to go off in 15 minutes. This half time reminder will let people know how much time is left and usually focuses participant's attention quickly. Kitchen timers are great because they have a clear signal when they go off. 6. To lead or facilitate?